Vote for candidates who see war as a last resort. Not a jobs program or a means to impose your world view. It’s not an ideological exercise in a flight simulator. Kids get blown up and killed.

Anthony Fauci did more harm to America than the 911 terrorists. We sacrificed our entire social order and economy based on his guidance, and he knew it to be untrue. His narcissism far exceeded his expertise and the American people will pay the collective price for a generation. I remember those of us hayseeds who pushed back on his directives were mocked as anti-intellectual and anti-science. At least we weren’t sheep. Pleading the 5th with a presidential pardon and blanket immunity speaks louder than any admission he could’ve made.

Fauci lied about the origin of Covid. He lied about the severity. He lied about controlling the spread. He worked equally as hard at censoring dissenting opinions to control the narrative he knew to be untrue. The only thing he got right was his belief that most Americans had become sheep and would conform to his commands.

I’ve spent the week trying to better understand the life and legacy of Lindsey Graham and it’s extremely complicated. Some of it I like, some of it I don’t. But of all the things I’ve read and heard the one thing that stands out to me is what’s NOT there. I can’t find a single road, bridge, school, building, or public facility of any sort that bears his name. That might be his most impressive non accomplishment.

Outside of Russell Fry the list of GOP candidates considering a run for the full senate term left vacant by the tragic passing of Lindsey Graham looks like a Classic Rock collection. The Republican Party has a problem with young voters but won’t accept that Hotel California and Born To Run were hits 50 years ago. Our party desperately needs young blood and not a boomer tent revival. And I’m a boomer.

Lindsey’s politics were a mixed bag with me. But he loved America and he loved South Carolina. I’ll not overstate our friendship but he was actually one of the few politicians I genuinely enjoyed being in the company of.

Taking a vacation this week and watching a good bit of CNBC every morning. Do all male CEO’s in today’s corporate America live on soy milk and avocado toast? The industrial empires that built our country were run by men with too much testosterone, drank too much whiskey and black coffee, and never apologized for existing. Agreeableness and adoration seeking may be today’s recipe for ladder climbing but I miss the Marlboro Man.

The Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine is a socialist and might be sympathetic to Nazis. Now he could be a sexual predator. He actually won a primary less than a month ago because he hates Trump and for some that’s more important. The 84 year old Republican senior senator from Kentucky has been in a hospital for nearly a month. His condition is unknown. Is he coherent? Is he cognitively stable? Is he conscious? We have no clue. But he’s helped obstruct Trumps agenda at times so who cares. I still hear that DJT is a dangerous figure and threat to our republic. As if everything was going along just fine before Cheeto Jesus showed up. Trump is not a cancer on our political system. It was dying of cancer before he ever showed up. He is, however, the most unregulated, non FDA approved dose of chemotherapy we’ve had since reconstruction. The folks that despise him most are the people most responsible for his continued relevancy.

STAND BESIDE HER, AND GUIDE HER, THRU THE NIGHT WITH A LIGHT FROM ABOVE

As a cynic and contrarian I’m always a beer or two away from a good conspiracy. I’ve learned during the Trump era that the difference in a good conspiracy theory and the truth is about a year. So here goes…… As we celebrate our independence let it be known that after The Civil War a select group of elite and northeastern historians got to write the history. It wasn’t good enough to paint the confederacy as ONLY racist and ONLY fighting to preserve the disgusting institution of slavery. They saw this as their chance to rewrite the history of The Revolutionary War as well and diminish the south’s contribution to victory. And they did. Our independence was not won in Boston or New York but rather in the backwoods of South Carolina. Sam Adams and Paul Revere were badasses but so was Francis Marion. The south is where the Revolution was won 250 years ago and while General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, it was after he got his ass whipped in the Palmetto State.

July 2, 1776 South Carolina votes yes.

The Revolutionary and Civil Wars remain the two most consequential events in America’s 250 history. What are some others that deserve consideration? Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations? Moon landing? Great Depression? Pearl Harbor? Gamecocks winning 5 in a row over Clemson?

The legal profession (lawyers and law firms) make roughly 80% of their political contributions to democrat candidates in federal elections. I’m painting with a broad brush but the average lawyer or judge is probably 30-40% less conservative than the Average American. Barrett and Kavanaugh may be conservative judges on the judicial spectrum but they’re significantly less conservative than Republican voters. If people on the right are putting their faith in our judiciary they’ll be consistently disappointed. Litigation in place of legislation will always be a headwind in advancing a limited government agenda.

A Guatemalan dude and a Haitian chick break every immigration law on the books and come to America illegally. One night they have a few “cool ones” and hook up at the Hotel California (Such a lovely place, such a lovely place). Nine months later they have a baby boy. That kid is an American citizen on day one. When that boy turns 12 he could decide he was born the wrong sex and petition Medi-Cal to pay for his sex change operation and the American taxpayer foots the bill. And we’re really gonna question whether America is in decline?

I’m objective enough to be critical of Trump when I think he deserves it. I’m totally opposed to the war in Iran. I don’t like the Oval Office resembling Liberace’s dressing room. The pettiness of his personality can be a bit much. But watching Mike DeWine and John Kasich passionately defend Haitian refugees reminded me that Trump at his absolute worst is better than the feckless, spineless, adoration seeking GOP leadership of the pre MAGA era. The GOP establishment has long had disdain for its rank and file voter but these two Ohioans said the quiet part out loud. It was never THE Republican Party but rather THEIR Republican Party.

I got no problem with those who wanna close the South Carolina Republican primary. I know many of these people and consider them friends. But I couldn’t disagree more. I like political movements that empower “the man on the street” and not party operatives. It just seems like another layer of conformity when the system needs insurgency.

The same political establishment that were gravely concerned for our national security when men with guns raided Trumps private residence looking for classified information are as quiet as crickets when John Bolton pleads guilty to mishandling of classified documents. They’ve genuinely never accepted that they are precisely the people that led us to support Trump in the first place.

In my native language of Pamplicoinian may I say that Alan Wilson saved Donald Trump’s ass in South Carolina and not the way the national media narrative suggests. Trumps endorsement has become a participation trophy.

Trying to end a war isn’t antisemitic. Attempting to stop American kids from getting killed should always be a priority of our President.

Country A spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on national defense. Country B spends roughly 1% of that. The two countries go to war and nobody wins. Then they negotiate some sort of peace deal that reminds me of a Hollywood divorce. Complete with pinky promises. The Pentagon is two miles from the Capital and our national security apparatus has been infiltrated with political lackeys, grifters, and think tankers who’ve never been in a bar fight. Our military hierarchy has politicized and commercialized war and peace and the men and women who serve in our Armed Services deserve better than this.